Real life of Coronation Street's Toyah Battersby actress Georgia Taylor - actual name, actor ex and co-star boyfriend

It's been a bit of a quiet time for Toyah Battersby in Weatherfield - but all that's set to change when her 23-year secret comes spilling out as a result of Roy Cropper being targeted by internet sleuths over the disappearance - and suspected murder - of Lauren Bolton.

It started in Coronation Street when Sam Blakeman took Roy's dog Freddie for a walk. Unbeknownst to him, he was followed by one of the online ghouls who have been targeting the café owner. Nina and Toyah headed out to look for him.

As Toyah searched the park for Roy's dog Freddie, she came across three sleuths digging up a rose bed, who revealed they saw Freddie digging in the same place. They reckoned Roy may have buried Lauren’s body there.

READ MORE: Coronation Street's Andy Whyment responds to comment on soap wage after posing with new £40k car

READ MORE: Read more of our Coronation Street stories here

After hearing this, Toyah saw red, picked up a shovel and smashed their car window, while one of the sleuths filmed her on his phone. Nick Tilsely soon arrived and persuaded Toyah to put down the shovel as she burst into tears. Having returned home, Toyah railed at an upset Sam for losing Freddie in the first place.

Fast forward and after a unusual exchange between Toyah and her sister Leanne Battersby, Nick Tilsley returns home, he finds Toyah in tears as she reveals that at 19 she gave birth to a stillborn baby girl, she kept it a secret and she buried her in the exact same place in the park that she found the sleuths digging up. Toyah takes a deep breath and admits to Nick that the baby’s father was Phil Simmonds, the guy who raped her.

With more action for Georgia's on-screen alter-ego, we thought we'd take a look at the actress' real life. Fans may not know is that Georgia is not actually called Georgia at all. Her birth name was Claire Jackson - but that all changed when she joined Corrie back in 1997.

"It's not that I planned this to happen," she previously told the Mirror. "But when I started with Coronation Street I had to register with Equity, the actors’ union, and at the time there seemed to be a hell of a lot of Claires so I had to think of something else."

She added: "I couldn’t tell you where I got Georgia from, other than I liked it, but my grandad’s surname was Taylor and he passed away not long before I got the part. As a teenager I didn’t really think the consequences through of opting for a completely different name, but it’s meant there’s been quite a bit of confusion over the years. At this point I’ll pretty much answer to anything!"

The soap star made her debut in Corrie as Toyah at just 17-years-old, back in 1997, along with Janice and Les Battersby and Les's daughter Leanne, when it was announced the 'family from hell' were to be introduced to the hit soap to stir up some trouble.

Toyah later left the Street in 2003 after finding out that her boyfriend John Arnley had cheated on her with her best friend Maria Sutherland, leading Georgia to take on a few other acting roles. The actress, from Wigan, joined the cast of Casualty as doctor Ruth Winters in 2007 and she was a series regular until 2011. She also made appearances in Where the Heart is, Law and Order: UK and Life on Mars.

In 2005 she took to the stage at the Royal Court in London alongside Helen Baxendale for The Woman Before along with performing in Christmas is Miles Away at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester and Bush Theatre, London. But not many people will know that Georgia also bagged herself a few movie roles. According to the Daily Star Her film career has seen her working alongside Dominic Cooper in the 2006 movie History Boys and Jason Statham in 2008 for The Bank Job.

Then, in September 2016 after a 13-year absence, Toyah's comeback to the cobbles was announced and she made an explosive return at Christmas when it was revealed that she had left her husband of five years Toby Chapman for Peter Barlow, Leanne's ex-husband.

In real life, Georgia reportedly split from long-term partner and actor Mark Letheren in 2022. He played journalist Simon Kitson in the ITV drama The Bill and played counsellor Ben Harding in BBC One's Casualty. He also had a recurring role as DS Kevin Geoffries in the ITV crime drama Wire in the Blood.

But it was on the set of Casualty where love is reported to have blossomed, when the pair met in 2008. Mark is now a photographer and regularly shares his work to his Instagram page. However, their 14-year relationship was rumoured to have come to an end in 2022 and Georgia has since been dating her former on-screen husband.

Georgia has been seen posing for a number of loved-up snaps with her former co-star beau Charlie De Melo, who played Imran Habeeb in the ITV soap. Georgia and Charlie, who played her husband on the cobbles until 2022 when he was tragically killed off, appeared to confirm their romance back in February 2023 when they were seen in a string of snaps together from her birthday break.

Back in October, the pair looked more loved-up than ever as they ditched Manchester for Northern Ireland. They appeared to head to the Titanic Belfast visitor experience as well as heading to the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge near Ballintoy in County Antrim as they took in the sprawling views.

"Delicious Northern Irish spam incoming," Georgia typed in a warning to her 83,000 followers at the time alongside the array of snaps which featured a number of beaming selfies of the pair in various locations on their trip.